{"id":64,"date":"2015-10-31T18:02:31","date_gmt":"2015-11-01T01:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jaclearningblog\/?p=64"},"modified":"2015-10-31T18:02:31","modified_gmt":"2015-11-01T01:02:31","slug":"inquiry-4-developing-libraries-in-developing-nations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jaclearningblog\/2015\/10\/31\/inquiry-4-developing-libraries-in-developing-nations\/","title":{"rendered":"Inquiry #4 – Developing Libraries in Developing Nations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whenever people think about ways to help the people in developing nations, most of the time, the first thought that came to mind would be making a donation to charity organizations which mission is to provide the people in developing nations with necessities such as clean water, food, clothes, medicine, farming animals, etc. Do people think about donating books? Frankly, not that I have heard of till my work on the inquiry topic \u201cDeveloping World Libraries.\u201d Due to the influence of the commercials being put on broadcasts by the charity organizations, my perception of the people in developing nations is that they are striving to survive with the basic needs of daily life. Books, literacy skills are seemed to be the least essential on the list of needs. However, Hamilton\u2019s (2013) post titled \u201cStamping out Poverty as Well as Books? How Libraries Can Support Development<\/a>\u201d has shown me a different perspective on the matter. Hamilton pointed out that people are required to connect and communicate with others in order to improve lives through developing business, or accessing information on health. Hamilton stated the important role of the public libraries in providing public access to internet and technology devices, as well as trained staffs to provide advice. In his post, he had mentioned the IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations<\/a>, Twitter @IFLA) initiative \u201cBeyond Access.\u201d Beyond Access conferences were held to communicate with donor community regarding the work that the association is doing in developing public libraries in developing countries. This connects to another article that I found and read online, Katz\u2019s \u201cLibraries, Literacy and Technology: A New Training Module for Public Librarians in Developing Countries Targeted at Integrating Libraries into Literacy Programs<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Katz (2015) also mentioned \u201cBeyond Access\u201d, however, the Beyond Access that he mentioned was managed by the International Research and Exchanges Board<\/a> (IREX) and was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation<\/a>. It is believe that teachers in developing nations are lack of skills and resources to foster children\u2019s literacy skills, and librarians (from the public libraries) \u201ccan become literacy-resource people who can support struggling teachers.\u201d Therefore, Beyond Access is committed to train and equip \u201clibrarians with the basic skills and knowledge to start integrating their institutions into literacy programs.\u201d The training module was done for the first time in Bangladesh in May 2015, and Katz stated that \u201cmore information based on the behavioral changes of librarians after the training will be available in several months.\u201d I look forward to the follow up report on the effectiveness of the training module.<\/p>\n

After my reading of the above mentioned post and article, I narrowed my research on free or low cost online resources for the public libraries in developing nations, and organizations that provide donations and support in developing libraries in those nations.<\/p>\n

Online resources:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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  1. African Digital Library<\/a> (ADL): According to Sharma (2009), the ADL was opened on November 1st, 1999. Its mission is to provide African learner with digitalized full text resources. It is free of charge to the residents and institutions of Africa.<\/li>\n
  2. Resources for Developing Country Researchers<\/a>: I came across this PDF format of lists of free or low fee access online resources that provide full-text peer-reviewed literature. I have not check the resources on the list, however, I think the resources are valuable to public libraries.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Organizations:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n